Sally Matthews

Sally Matthews was the winner of the 1999 Kathleen Ferrier Award. She studied with Cynthia Jolly and Johanna Peters and completed the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2000. She was a member of The Royal Opera Young Artist programme from 2001 to 2003 and currently studies with Paul Farringdon.

In 2001 she made her Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut as Nannetta Falstaff with Bernard Haitink. Since then, roles at Covent Garden have included Pamina Die Zauberflöte; Fiordiligi Così fan tutte; Sifare Mitridate and Anne Truelove The Rake’s Progress.

Sally quickly then made debuts at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich singing the title role in Cavalli La Calisto in a new production by David Alden; Netherlands Opera singing Fiordiligi; Opera Australia singing Rusalka; Theater an der Wien singing Blanche Les Dialogues des Carmélites and recently made her Vienna Staatsoper debut singing Donna Anna Don Giovanni.

She has since sung Fiordiligi and the title role in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland in Munich and will return there to sing Blanche; Sophie Der Rosenkavalier for Netherlands Opera and will return there for the title role in Handel Deidamia and the Governess in a new Robert Carsen production of Britten The Turn of the Screw.

Other current and future plans include Countess Le Nozze di Figaro for the Glyndebourne Festival and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden; The Turn of the Screw with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis; Mahler Symphony No 2 with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle and Symphony No 8 with the Philharmonia and Lorin Maazel; Poulenc Gloria with the Orchestra dell’Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome and Antonio Pappano; Canteloube Chants d’Auvergne with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Mendelssohn Lobesgesang with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Recent concert appearances have included Mozart Mass in C Minor with Le Cercle de l’Harmonie; Brahms Requiem with Bernard Haitink and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder with Robin Ticciati and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra; Carmina Burana; Mahler Symphony No 4 and Schumann Paradies und die Peri with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle; the Schumann also with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Harding and the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchester again with Rattle; Mahler Symphonies No 2 and 4 with the LSO and Michael Tilson Thomas; Berg Seven Early Songs with BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda; Messiaen Poèmes pour Mi with the LSO and Daniel Harding; Haydn Creation with the LSO and Sir Colin Davis in London and New York and with the OAE and Mark Elder on a European tour and The Seasons at the BBC Proms with Roger Norrington and with DSO Berlin and Andrew Manze.

Sally has appeared frequently in recital and was part of the BBC New Generation Artists scheme. She has appeared in recital with Simon Lepper at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, La Monnaie, Brussels and at the Wigmore Hall, where she has also appeared with the Nash Ensemble. Future plans include return invitations to the Concertgebouw and Wigmore Hall.